{"id":4350,"date":"2018-08-09T13:17:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T13:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/08\/09\/on-the-correct-use-of-begging-the-question-2\/"},"modified":"2018-08-09T13:17:22","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T13:17:22","slug":"on-the-correct-use-of-begging-the-question-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2018\/08\/09\/on-the-correct-use-of-begging-the-question-2\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Correct Use of ‘Begging the Question’"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, June 21, 2012 I  heard Dennis Prager on his nationally-syndicated radio show use 'beg the question' when what he meant was 'raise the question.'  This is a very common mistake nowadays.<\/span><\/p>\n

I correct Mr. Prager because I love him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The visage of Jeff Dunham's 'Walter' signals that a language rant is in the offing should you be averse to such things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Walter\"<\/a>To raise a question is not to beg a question. 'Raise a question' and 'beg a question' ought not be used <\/span>interchangeably on pain of occluding a distinction essential to clear thought. To raise a question is just to pose it, to bring it before one's mind or before one's audience for consideration. To beg a question, however, is not to pose a question but to reason in a way that presupposes what one needs to prove.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suppose A poses the question, 'Does Allah exist?' B responds by saying that Allah does exist because his <\/span>existence is attested in the Koran which Allah revealed to Muhammad. In this example, A raises a question, while B begs the question raised by A. The question is whether or not Allah exists; B's response begs the question by presupposing that Allah does exist. For Allah could not reveal anything to Muhammad unless Allah exists. <\/span><\/p>\n

The phrase 'beg the question' is not as transparent as might be hoped. The Latin, petitio principii<\/em>, is better: begging of the principle. Perhaps the simplest way to express the fallacy in English is by calling it circular reasoning. If I argue that The Los Angeles Times<\/em> displays liberal bias because its reportage and editorializing show a left-of-center slant, then I reason in a circle, or beg the question. Fans of Greek may prefer hysteron proteron<\/em>, literally, the later earlier. That is, what is logically posterior, namely, the conclusion, is taken to be logically prior, a premise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Punchline<\/strong>: Never use 'beg the question' unless you are referring to an informal fallacy in reasoning. If <\/span>you are raising, asking, posing a question, then say that. Do your bit to preserve our alma mater<\/em>, the English language. Honor thy mother! Matrix of our thoughts, she is deeper and higher than our thoughts, their sacred Enabler.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, I am but a vox clamantis in deserto<\/em>.  The battle has already been lost.  So why do I write <\/span>things like the above?  Because I am a natural-born scribbler who takes pleasure in these largely pointless exercises. <\/span><\/p>\n

And perhaps there is a bit of virtue-signaling going on. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, June 21, 2012 I  heard Dennis Prager on his nationally-syndicated radio show use 'beg the question' when what he meant was 'raise the question.'  This is a very common mistake nowadays. I correct Mr. Prager because I love him. The visage of Jeff Dunham's 'Walter' signals that a language rant is in the … Continue reading “On the Correct Use of ‘Begging the Question’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fallacies-informal","category-language-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}